especially after president obama won the election. senate democratic leadership aide tells me that will remains a 50/50 chance we will get a mini deal temporary extension of tax cuts under $250,000 before the january 1 deadline when we would go over the cliff. will are no assurances of that. a white house official told me as president obama prepares to fly back to conduct and participate in the negotiations at the end, there has been no progress over the holiday weekend. michelle, i'm afraid that people who are looking for a deal and looking for a deal by december 31, all hope is not lost. it is not looking good at the moment. >> let's go back to this hitting the debt ceiling on monday. we learned of this because treasury secretary tim good night mother sent a letter to the honorable harry reid majority leader. and that's where he outline it is fact that in three business days, the summit government is going to run out of borrowing capacity. john, if there were a treasurer in a business who went to their boss and said by the way, thre